November 25 movie: Latin Lovers. Now this is what we were in the mood for! Ricardo Montalban and Lana Turner smoke up the screen in glorious Technicolor. Also costarring Jean Hagen! (Lina Lamont in Singin' in the Rain.) As I had heard, Hagen has a beautiful voice. But the movie is all about Montalban and Turner. What a great combination. It's too bad they only made this one movie together. Montalban also has a great dance number with Rita Moreno.
The sexual politics of this movie are completely appalling: Turner is a powerful, rich woman completely unsatisfied with her relationship with an effete New Yorker emasculated by psychotherapy. What she really needs is a manly Latin man with enough machismo to put her in her place. The trick to enjoying a movie like this is to ignore and/or laugh at the horrible gender stereotypes.
In Singin' in the Rain, Jean Hagen's voice is heard as Kathy Selden dubbing Lina Lamont in "Would You." Most of the singing is Betty Noyes (funny name for a singer!).
I'd heard that before, that Hagen provided the voice for Reynolds, essentially dubbing herself. Very funny!
It's completely obvious during Singin' in the Rain when Reynolds is singing for herself ("Good Morning") and when she isn't ("Would You").